Saturday NFL draws larger audience than CFP rollout

A pair of Saturday NFL games drew a larger viewing audience than college football for the rollout of the sport’s 12-team playoff.

The playoff game between SMU and Penn State averaged 6.4 million viewers on TNT networks, compared with the Texans-Chiefs game on NBC, which averaged 15.5 million viewers.

Later, Clemson-Texas drew 8.6 million viewers on TNT, compared with 15.4 million for Steelers-Ravens on Fox.

ESPN, ABC and others aired the other two college games — Indiana-Notre Dame (13.4 million) on Friday night and Tennessee-Ohio State (14.3 million) on Saturday night. There were no competing NFL games.

The overall average of 10.6 million viewers was higher than all but four college games this season.

USF beats SJSU 41-39 in 5OT at the Hawaii Bowl

HONOLULU>> Bryce Archie found Keshaun Singleton over the middle to give South Florida the lead in the fifth overtime and Mac Harris batted down a pass in the end zone to give the Bulls a 41-39 victory over San Jose State on Tuesday night in the Hawaii Bowl.

It was the longest FBS bowl/postseason game since overtime was established in 1996. Previously four games had gone three overtimes.

South Florida (7-6) has won back-to-back bowl games for the first time since 2016-17. San Jose State (7-6) was seeking its first bowl victory since 2015.

Trailing 27-24, South Florida started its final drive of regulation at midfield with 43 seconds left. Archie had two completions for first downs to set up John Cannon’s 41-yard field goal to tie it.

Archie was 24 of 35 for 235 yards for UCF. Sean Atkins made 11 catches for 104 yards.

Walker Eget threw for 280 yards and two touchdowns for San Jose State.

Bergey, Eagles Pro Bowl linebacker, dies at 79

PHILADELPHIA>> Bill Bergey, a five-time Pro Bowl linebacker who played in a Super Bowl for the Philadelphia Eagles, died Wednesday, the team announced. He was 79.

His son, Jake, posted on social media that Bergey died of cancer. Bergey, a three-time Eagles team MVP in a vote of his teammates, had been open about his fight with the disease over the last few years.

Bergey, who was inducted into the Eagles Hall of Fame in 2009, said he had a form of jaw cancer since 2021.

“I didn’t give it the old, ‘Why me?’ or anything like that,” he said in 2003. “I just thought that I had to fight it just like I would fight anything else that I needed to fight.”

Struggling Valencia hires West Brom’s Corberan as its new head coach

VALENCIA, Spain>> Relegation-threatened Valencia has hired West Bromwich Albion manager Carlos Corberan as its new head coach through June 2027.

Valencia fired Rubén Baraja on Monday after another setback in La Liga left the Spanish club stuck in the relegation zone and sparked renewed protests against Singaporean owner Peter Lim.

“Carlos Corberan has been appointed as coach of Valencia CF, signing a contract through to 2027,” a statement on Valencia’s website said early Wednesday. “A buy-out option in his contract with West Bromwich Albion was taken up to allow him to leave.”

No official figure was given but the compensation for the former Valencia youth player was reported to be in the region of $3 million.